Good intentions don’t matter to your donors. You can read articles, take online classes and make plans, but if you and your staff don’t put the plans into practice and make them a priority they won’t make a difference to your donors or your bottom line. When God drops an idea into your heart, be obedient, follow through, pick up the phone to give them a call, or send a book that He brings to mind when you’re reading the donor’s comments on a prayer card. Be obedient, don’t put it off until later.
Take inventory of this year’s plans and your actual practices. You need your schedule in place so you can see what items are making a difference in your fundraising efforts, but the planned schedule isn’t going to provide accurate information if you’re missing deadlines and letting things drift off.
Does it help to improve your storytelling skills if receipts are not sent out in the planned 48 hours? Is it worth re-designing and optimizing your online giving page, if the first thing your donor sees after making a donation is a “Donor Confirmation” that just recites their giving info? Take some time this month to make a donation through your website, ask a few people to send a donation and get their ideas about the process and how they felt. Did it make them happy they gave? Did they feel they were important or just another dollar in your bucket.
It doesn’t help that you intended to phone that new donor, but just didn’t find the time. Adding another email touch to your year-end might have increased giving, but if it didn’t go out, you won’t know the results.
- Check to see how long it’s actually taking receipts to go out; not the plan, but the actual times.
- Did all scheduled mailings go out this year?
- Did all donors giving over $500 get a phone call? (or whatever your set goal)
- Did all new donors receive a welcome packet or phone call? (again, your goal)
Do you need to evaluate workload, and assign donor care as primary responsibility for a specific staff member? We all get busy, but don’t let the simple things drift to the back burner. Make donor relations a priority!
Today’s donors want to know that their gift will accomplish something, that’s why they give to your ministry. They care about drug and alcohol abuse. Tell them what is accomplished because of their gift. They want to know it made a difference in lives. They also want to be thanked. Remember you’re building a relationship, not just fulfilling a contract, it’s not enough to say, hey we got it. Tell them that you’re glad you got their gift, and it’s important to you and to the ministry.
We need to take a step back and remind ourselves that we should be in the ministry of building donor relationships, not raising money. Show your donors that you care about them, show them the impact they have, and show them gratitude. Then they’ll end up giving you funds to accomplish your mission.
It’s much easier to work in fundraising when you look at building relationships with real people instead of raising money as a necessary evil. If you’re grateful it will come across in your letters and phone calls and your donor will enjoy the relationship too.
